Rethinking secularism

At a time when ‘secularism’ has become something of a bad word in India, and the Hindu-right establishment in New Delhi is said to take a dim view of of neighbouring Nepal declaring itself ‘secular’ in its new constitution, a leading Indian thinker says the misunderstanding stems from semantics.

Delivering the 13th annual Mahesh Chandra Regmi Lecture on Monday, Shiv Visvanathan, professor at the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, sees the problem as one of inaccurate translation.

Secular has been translated to mean ‘non-religious’, whereas it should mean ‘religious pluralism’, Visvanathan said, calling for “dialogic secularism” where there is conversation in the space of secularism.

Visvanathan has been examining the etymology of the word ‘secularism’, which contrary to popular belief, was not at first included in India’s post-independence constitution but only inserted with the 42nd Amendment in 1976 by Indira Gandhi during her emergency.

Secularism thus became a vehicle for political parties, mainly the Congress, to appease minorities. Over the years, secularlism therefore came to denote the non-Hindu agenda and the BJP made political capital out of it, used it as an electoral strategy to be voted to power in 2014.

In his talk entitled ‘Rethinking Secularism: An invitation to an experiment’ to an audience of 150 at Hotel Shanker on Monday, Vishvanathan called for a new perspective on secularism in the 21st century that moves away from its reductionist definition in western sociology.

Visvanathan stressed the need to redefine and refine the concept and role of secularism to end the cycle of violence and intolerance in India today. “We need a reinvented secularism which creates a dialogue between myth and history, science and religion, democracy and pluralism,” he said.

Visvanathan said he doesn’t want to perform a “premature post-mortem of the word” and examines the state of secularism in India through the perspective of its genesis in the separation of church and state in European history. He then went on to examine how it co-exists with scientific belief, and is portrayed in literature and film.

“(Secularism) is based both on a restricted idea of problem solving and a false history,” he stated, adding that his need to reconstruct secularism began with the defeat of the Congress by the BJP in 2014 mainly because of the secularism agenda.

Nepalis in the audience which included academics, ex-politicians and students said they found parallels to the secularism debate in Nepal’s new constitiuton. Srijana Giri, who is doing her masters in social science at Tribhuvan University said: “Although he is an Indian scholar and took examples of Indian cases, we understood the argument as our own issue because we are facing the same problem here.”

In conclusion, Visvanathan said secularism should not be demonised by a majoritarian regime, adding: “We need a new framework to understand a world where worship and secularism can coexist.”

The Mahesh Chandra Regmi Lecture is an annual public lecture series from 2003, instituted by Social Science Bahato honour the seminal contribution of Nepali historian Mahesh Chandra Regmi to country’s scholarship.

FYI Secularism is a word taken from Christianism which hardly signifies what at first the French had put it in 1905, ie, Laîcism. When French were obliged to separate religion from the State coz the then pope used to rule over the whole roost of christianism by imposing their militia at every home and in case there was the breach of established rules they were punished physically. Which is why laicism was promulgated to distinctly separate religion from state. That means in private you are free to worship or venerate whatever god of your choice, but when it comes to public life the state has priority. No sign of proselytism is tolerated in public life. In sum that’s that.

Actually they had had problems with other religions, no one mentions crusades, nearly all became muslim. 15 something they stopped the mores in Poitiers. It is best to gave freedom from indoctrination or patriarchical regulations. Yet the catholics love women so their laws protect women interestingly. And nihilism as in maoust vaby killers is not as good as faith. State must love everybody and we keep private religions.

Melissa Chalmers: Regarding the eagle with the transmitter, the reason it might not be doing so well is because of the transmitter that is strapped to its back. Same as mobile phone towers and mobile phones that are making humans ill, the transmitter on the eagle would be giving off radiation constantly, day in and day out. Because it is attached to the bird, it would never have a reprieve from these signals. The safety code for these devices are based on thermal heating of a large human. Smaller animals are not covered under the safety code as they cannot thermally regulate themselves the same as a human being. No thermal health effects are not being considered at all. Please take this transmitter off this eagle and give it a chance at having a normal rest of its life. Melissa Chalmers Executive Director of EPIC Electromagnetic Pollution Illnesses Canada Foundation

M Cotton: Congratulations to Yeti Airlines for pioneering such forward looking initiatives in the Nepal corporate sector. Let’s hope this inspires others involved in industry and commerce to follow similar approaches. M Cotton

Chris Avison: Well said Seth. Ed Hillary was the Patron of the first successful Irish expedition to climb Mount Everest in May 1993. The leader was Dawson Stelfox, who is Patron of Irish Nepalese Educational Trust (INET), a charity born out of that expedition. Today, several schools and community buildings are up and running, together with a few more in the pipeline. Along with this small scale support, INET encourages environmental and health education. There is no doubt that Ed Hillary was the spark that set this alight, along with the enthusiasm of the Irish climbers and their Nepalese friends who travelled with them. Of course, none of these things are possible without the generosity of the friendly and hard working Nepalese themselves.

anonymous: We are witnessing that the people of Nepal are not only misinformed by interested parties, they are loyal and traditional therefore Bibishek Nepal with young people does not inspire confidence. The problem is the politician is just one mouth, more important are group decisions thaw will move Nepal into the new era. All fighting communists, maoists should be voted OUT they created the problem no one mended potholes now lets say time is UP> Future is for new generations, make a simbolic funeral for all current politicians, keep them as advisor but eough is enough since 20 years. Jay NEPAL.

anonymous: Usually proven result gives more money than forever cloudy info.

Arne Walderhaug: Two years on, still wondering if I will be to land at Pokhara International before I’m six foot under.

Shree Shrestha: What’s wrong with building concrete retaining wall? KMC should have built surrounding areas park like and leave the temple to be rebuilt by originalists. The way it’s going on Ranipokhari will become garbage dump site.

chet: its so sad to see the beautiful looking rani pokhari looks trash now i remember the old Rani pokhari now and i miss the beauty. In the middle of the crowd Rani Pokharai looked appealing to everyone. Really like if government could renovate it as soon as possible

gary Parkinson: Not for one moment do I believe this.An excuse for this corrupt government to carry on stealing more international money.They have a fine record on this,money has obviously been filtered into their own coffers.

Madhav: Repercussions of Kathmandu running Hashtag gobackindia. Anyway it’s good as social media nationalist must have pledged billions of dollars themselves. Charity begins at home.

Bhumsen: Lets assume Nepal got all the money. Then politicians and government officers will siphon the money anyway. Poor Nepali will never get their hands in the fund. In the name of development, funds will dry out. It is better if donors dont send money. Nepali needs to learn to be independent. Down with Corruption.

Crony n chronic party: Congress needed to suffer heavy loss to get away from Koirala clique and cronyism. New blood needs to be pumped or else suffer fate of Indian Congress. Educated lot needs to rise up and ol fogies our.